Can't Judge a Movie By It's Poster

Friday night is movie night.

It always has been. I've kept the tradition even since Steve moved out, figuring it could be a fun night we all kind of crash out and have screen time together.

It's not exactly the same. I don't have Steve's skill at finding exactly the movie we want, so we need to know what we have before choosing. We still take turns, but we often forget whose turn it is as we don't have turns each weekend anymore.

Last time we had a movie night, it was Nate's turn, and it was Valentine's Day. It was more than 2 weeks ago, because of February vacation. He chose and old Godzilla film, and I had to grit my teeth as the dubbed film went on and on and the boys stared openmouthed at the screen, waiting for monsters.

Tonight was Andy's night.

I showed him what we had available on my Amazon account, and he chose My Dog Skip, because there is a picture of a tiny dog staring at a toilet, and I said "Maybe the dog learns how to use the toilet?" And Bingo, Andy made a choice.

Have you seen this movie? It came out in 2000. The little boy in the movie is almost 30 now. In fact, all the actors are incredibly young. It's a sweet movie with a sweet story. But the boys are a bit cynical. Almost as soon as it started they were talking about how the dog was probably going to get hit by a car. "That always happens in these movies."

As the movie went on, the boys laughed and talked about relationships between the characters in the film. The kids are pretty intuitive about some things. The next door neighbor comes home from the war and is different. "Who do you think might understand him?" I asked. Nate was the one who said the boy's father, who had lost his leg in the war. And it all seemed good.

Until the end.

OK, so, flashback and subject change (kind of.)  When we were kids, my mother got the movie Turner and Hooch. Do you know this one? It had Tom Hanks in it, back before he was Big Tom Hanks and was just Medium Tom Hanks? Anyway, it was about Tom Hanks and a dog. One of them was Turner and the other was Hooch. I don't remember actually watching this movie, so I can't tell you who was who. And SPOILER ALERT! At the end of this movie, I'm pretty sure the dog dies. I think he gets shot. My mother watched this movie with us, and at the end of the movie, she was a gibbering mess. And so was my brother Jamie, who must have been around 8 years old. They cried and cried together, Mom and Jamie, all over this dog from this movie.

So.... My Dog Skip.

I'm about the spoil the movie for you. The dog dies.

But not when you think he's going to die. They make it so you think he's going to die, but then he doesn't. During the time when the little movie boy was crying and we all thought the dog was going to die, Nathan started sniveling. And then Andy started tearing up. And then the movie dog got better, and it looked like it was going to be OK, but then the dog got old and the narrator (Harry Connick Jr.) told us that he died at the old age of eleven.

And then the movie was over.

I went over to give Nate a hug, because he'd started crying. Only when I hugged him he started right out bawling. Nick made a comment and I replied, "It's OK that Nate's crying. It shows that he has feelings and that he's empathetic."

At this, Nate started crying harder.

He cried and cried. Andy was crying, too, at some point. But then he lost interest in crying and decided he was just sleepy. Nathan kept going. After ten minutes I was coated in snot and Nate was making odd wailing noises.

The thing is, I was serious about him being empathetic. Nate gets so wrapped up in his own story and is so easily frustrated that it's easy to forget that stories affect him this way.

One week, he wants Godzilla. The next he's sobbing about a dog. My baby boy. My baby bear.

Piano Recital #2

Before the 2012 Christmas Piano Recital

We declared the event a success.

And Then It Snowed

Actually, it was more like slush. Thank goodness it melted before nightfall.

The boys had snow pants and boots by 7am and went out to play before the school bus came. They were soaking wet in minutes.

I went out to try and do damage control and take out the trash. I saw Nathan slip and fall face first into the wet slush of the driveway.

For a moment he didn't move. Sometimes kids do that when they hurt themselves.

I called out and walked over to see if he was OK.

Nate got up, rolling every other dry spot into the slush in the process.

"I'm OK." he said. "Lucky I fell into the slush! This slush saved my life!"

No Ticks On Me

After Trick-Or-Treating on the 31st, we still had to make the drive back home.

Both Nate and Andy fell asleep in the car, so when we got home, I had them skip baths so they could hop into bed, even though it wasn't even 8pm.

The next morning, at the breakfast table, there was a slight commotion. Then Nick and Nate were both shouting at me that there was a tick on Nate.

It was on his chest, high up enough so that he couldn't see it. It wasn't swollen, but it has sug itself in.

I called him over and got it out with a cotton ball, dish soap, and tweezers. (I've heard that if you cover it in soap or oil, it backs out, trying to breathe, and it makes it easier to pluck off. Don't know if it's true, but getting it off Nate was pretty easy.)

Nate sniffed a little, but the tick was off, and I figured it was forgotten.

That afternoon, however, he was poking at it during piano practice.

"I feel all funny about it," he said. And then he asked if it was true that you could catch a disease from ticks.

"Yes," I said, not really thinking about it. "You can, but you won't. We'll keep an eye on it just in case, but I'm sure you're fine. Now let's practice this."

Cut to Nate in Steve's Den, crying with worry about catching some illness from his tick bite.

By the way, he's fine. The area was red because he was poking it all day. Once we put a band-aid on the spot and he was able to see the reflection in the mirror, he was a lot calmer.

UNICEF

Halloween was postponed here in our town. In Lillian's neighborhood, however, things looked good! So we headed down there on the 31st, and the boys trick or treated.

The boys have the little orange UNICEF boxes, handed out by the church. This year was the first year that Nathan understood the concept. People give you change for the boxes, and the boxes go to poor children.

This year, each of the boys remembered to bring their orange boxes to Lillian's, and all three of them carried them out into the night.

The first house we stopped, the guy gave them each a dollar.

The second place we stopped, some very nice young adults passed out candy, but didn't seem to notice the UNICEF boxes. I started backing away, Andy shouting out "Thank You!" and suddenly Nate froze.

"Wait!" he shouted at the nice young adults. "Aren't you forgetting something?" he waved his orange box in the air. "UNICEF?"

The kids told us they didn't have change, and I pulled Nate away, apologizing.

"Listen," I said. "Some people will notice the boxes and give you coins. Others won't have anything. But don't ask. It's a little touchy, and we don't want to be rude."

At the next house, a very nice lady placed candy bars in the boy's bags. Nate didn't say anything, but he raised the box over his head and waved it back and forth, making sure the lady would notice it.

After a few more houses I told him that if he didn't stop waving it around I would take it away.

But this time of year, I'm reminded he would be great at fundraising.

The Last Time...

The last time we were there...

We looked a little different.

We liked different things.

We couldn't always walk, and we napped whenever we wanted.

This time we're older, and we're even more excited!

Explaining The Rules Of The Game

Old Photos...

... can be so heartwarming.

Movie Night Critic

So far, we've successfully implemented 3 movie nights. 

The last person who got the choose was Andy. I was kind of worried about Andy, because he's really easy to influence. When he first found out he was next to choose, he picked Atlantis, which we've all seen a billion times very recently. Then he changed him mind and said "Harry Potter Two," which I knew wasn't his choice - let's face it. Nick's the Harry Potter fan. I pictured Nick whispering into Andy's ear, and Andy making that choice to please. 

I also happen to think Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets (otherwise known as Harry Potter Two) is a bit scarier than the first one. And I said so, out loud, to all three of the boys.

Which brings us to Friday, Movie Night.

Andy said he changed his mind again. He wanted to watch Harry Potter One (The Sorcerer's Stone) instead. Never mind that we'd watched it together two weeks earlier. Never mind that, since then, Nate's been popping it in every weekend morning, and non-school night. They must have seen it 14 times in as many days. I wouldn't be surprised.

This is when I myself intervened, and had the following conversation with Andy / Myself. "You know," I said, "You could also watch movies you haven't seen before. We could watch... "

 Oh, no! What can he watch? Quick, think of something! 

"Um,  a Disney thing we haven't seen... Or something from the library...." 

OK, that's Pokemon and a lot of bad Scooby Doo cartoons! Think! Think! Something decent! What did you watch when you were little? 

"Superman - we could watch Superman."

We watched Superman.

The original. Well, the 1978 version. The one I watched when I was little.

I haven't seen that movie in a long time. It's hard to watch, now, knowing what happened to Christopher Reeve. But it was the first movie that ever made me cry (when he leves his mother), and I know we used to love it. 

Or, maybe we just used to run around singing the Theme song and pretending to fly. But whatever. I thought the boys might be interested.

And guess what - Andy choose it.

It actually took two nights to watch it, because at 9PM the first night Nick had already fallen asleep and there was still an hour left of the film. The second night had all the action - the bombs, the kryptonite, the flying around,  the rocks, the earthquakes... 

Steve and I discussed Lois Lane, and why she was so irritating and, well, not smart for a snappy woman reporter. We also talked about that part where Superman flies around Earth until it spins backwards, reversing time, which is just so totally unbelievable I can't really get past it.

But we all had fun, I think.

When it was finally done, I said, "Thank you, Andy, for choosing that movie. What did you guys think of it."

Nick said "Good." One word.

Nate said it was good, but scary. You might be surprised, but he's often the one who can't sleep because he's scared of something from a book or movie. 

Andy was enthusiastic. "Yes! I loved that movie! I give it One Star!"

He's tough, that one.

Let's Boogie

After four days, Nathan started asking to stay home from the beach. He was a wild man in the water, but the waves were sometimes too much for him, and the water was cold. And by cold I don't mean "The water's a bit chilly this morning, just get it over your shoulders and you'll be fine." I mean you step onto the water and your joints begin aching from the cold and after five minutes, if you've managed to work your way to your waist, you realize you've lost all feeling in your thighs. A shark could be gnawing off your foot and you'd have no idea because you're entire body is numb.

So I bribed the boys with Boogie Boards, something they've been asking for since last year.

They were so excited, and ran in right away to use them. Of course, the water was very cold, and the waves that day turned violently hard and high, so we had to pull them out of the water before noon anyway, but it made for a fun day.

Hmm. Apples.

Last Day Of Gymnastics

I didn't take pictures of the gymnastics recital, even though mobs of parents and grandparents and aunts, uncles, and cousins were elbowing each other out of the way to do just that. Why? Well, this is the fourth year of gymnastics for us, and I have hundreds of photos of the inside of the gym, spotted with images of children so small they look like ants.

The fact is, the photos and the videos don't do the kids justice. But the look of pride on the kids' faces when they stand there with their trophy? That is worth capturing.

For the record, Andy was unable to do gymnastics for weeks because of his collarbone. But since his sling is off, I sent him down for the recital. The teacher was careful with him, and didn't let him hang from his arms, which frustrated him. She would hold him, taking his weight, and he was yelling at her to "let me go! I can do it! let me go!"

But he got his trophy!

Last Day Of T-Ball

We didn't have the last T-ball game. So many games had been rained out that the last week was jam-packed, and the league refused to re-schedule anything else. But it was raining, so instead of playing the coach just passed out the trophies to those who showed up. I had been planning on taking all my photos that day. Shoot. Instead we have rainy day pictures.

Crazy Bus

This is just an example of how juggling multiple projects from multiple people can make you crazy. Read all the way through, please.

Nick's school lunch program has an online system. This easily happens when schools turn to third party catering companies, those that specialize in schools and nursing homes, for their food needs. We get a printed calendar with the months food choices, so we can decide if we are buying or bringing lunch. And Nick can purchase a milk each day, which he does, for 40 cents.

I can easily go online and put money into an account instead of sending cash with Nick. This is good because neither Nick nor his teacher need be bothered with dealing with the money. But it does have a drawback. First of all, I get charged 30 cents for every ten dollars we put into the account, and then get charged interest by the credit card company because I need to use a credit card.

But there are more drawbacks. This morning I got around to looking through the papers Nick brought home from school yesterday and found a letter saying he owed 50 cents for his school lunches, and then adding a paragraph stating that there is an online system this year, oh negligent parent, and you can actually go online and keep an eye on what he's eating and how much is still in the account!

Only I can't. Because to actually get THIS privilege I would need to pay $10 a year, and I refuse, especially when I'm paying processing fees. I would leave an angry comment about this somewhere, but I can't, because there is no one to leave this to. The website is feedback free.

Anyway, today is waffle day, and Nick was looking forward to it, so I rushed to my laptop to quickly put some money into the account so he could eat lunch. My laptop was charging on the floor in my bedroom, not an ideal location, but I need my humidifier when the heat is on, so the usual outlet is taken.

So while I'm on the floor, trying to type in my credit card number, Nate and Andy come running in, half dressed, to bother me about toys for show and tell (Nate's letter of the week is K, why can't he bring his Krocodile Kite?). Also, Andy's eyes are red for no good reason, and he does not want to go to school. But they see a big cardboard box which used to hold something from Santa, but the contents of which has already been assembled and hidden away. It's empty but for a small load of styrofoam peanuts, which I was saving so that Nick could build the snowman he has to make for homework, but is late turning in to school.

The boys see this box of white stuff, and immediately start shaking it. I am not looking at them, I'm looking at my laptop and my credit card, crouched on the floor. And suddenly the cardboard box with the styrofoam peanuts knocks into my huge oversized coffee mug and coffee flies onto the rug, my running shoes, and my laptop.

I start screaming, thinking about how my laptop is ruined (it's fine), how I need to clean up the spill, how I need to start all over entering the information for Nick's school lunch, and how we should already be putting coats on because Nick is going to miss the bus.

The boys are terrified. Nate still needs a show and tell item that begins with K and is not a kite. Andy still has no shoes on, and steam is coming out of my ears. My morning coffee is seeping into my rug.

That's how MY day is going. Yours?

I Want To RIde My Bike

I thought it would be a nice idea if I took the boys to the park to ride their bikes.

We usually ride bikes in the driveway, but that leaves the boys riding in circles before they lose patience and just ride down the hill. When I was a kid we lived on a dead-end street and we'd just go riding out there. When we got older, we'd ride around the streets of suburbia, with neither destination nor helmets on our heads. It was wonderful. My kids aren't getting within ten feet of the street we live on. Not even as teenagers. It's a different place, and a different time. I wouldn't even ride a bike on this street unless I had to.

So I took them to the park. Nick chose his scooter, which was great. He could go fast, zip back and forth, and have a great time. Nate chose his "big bike" with the training wheels. He does very well. I watched them from behind, because I was busy with Andrew. Andy was on the tricycle. Andy refuses to use the pedals, but like to scoot himself with his feet. He also refuses to steer, which means he ends up in the grass or bumping into other people, people he didn't see because he's actually looking behind him.

I ended up with my hand on the handlebars, pushing him along. It's no wonder he doesn't like to pedal. We were going rather slowly, but the pedals were flying. He'd have to pedal at supersonic speed just to keep up with Nate.

It was fun, but I don't think we're quite ready for the full length bike ride yet. Maybe one day. When Andy's legs are longer.

Stand Off

Nate is upstairs crying, loudly, in his bed.

We were all warm and cuddly, and I read stories and tucked him in, and then, moments before I left the room, he said "I want a stuffy!"

(A stuffy is a stuffed animal, folks.)

I said, "OK, get one."

He said, "No. I want YOU to get me one."

I said, "No. You need to get it yourself."

And then the wailing mess we have upstairs.

BotBot

We like robots here.

Wall-E is a robot. C3PO, R2D2 - robots. Voicebot - robot. Transformers - robots AND ALIENS, which is probably why they are so cool.

Nick sometimes talks about building a robot with Steve, but I think he thinks they will be building C3PO. Steve thinks they will build a box with a blinking light. Half joking I spoke to Nick about wanting a ROOMBA. Nick started asking a few questions, thought about it, then announced "I think I'd like one!"

Nathan calls everything a bot. "This is shoebot" or "This is swingbot." Tonight at dinner he started bouncing his fork off his knee. "This is forkbot. He can fly!" I told him forkbot should fly some pasta into his mouth. He did.

Any calls them all "botbots."

Labor Day

My sister Anne-E came up for a visit and we went to Storyland. I shouldn't have gone - I should have waited for the boys to be 100%. But I didn't. I am incapable of not going to amusements parks. It was a great time - I'm so glad she came. The boys miss her already.

And tomorrow is the start of a new week. I'm pretending last week didn't happen. And maybe this time everything will go smoothly, naps will be taken on time, and I will actually get to work out.

Outside Time

Today is the first day we dragged out the kiddie pool and the sprinkler. Because I cut back all those prickly bushes, the blossoms on the trees are really overwhelming. A good breeze kept us cool and dried my laundry. Steve is cooking chicken on the grill. It was a marvelous day.


Yes, that's a hat on Nick's head.

Also, if you haven't checked out Larissa's blog in a while, please do. She has some really amazing and outstanding photographs of her trip to Africa that should not be missed.

Tractor Ride

We have a large lawn, which we mow with a rider mower. When Steve mows, he gives the boys tractor rides on the mower (not while the mower is on.) The boys love the mower, and are more than a little excited by the John Deer logo.

You never know how a kid will react to actually riding on a tractor. Nick gets nervous, but he loves it. Nathan, our louder and more daring child, acts excited, but gets too nervous to ever actually get on. He shakes and then changes his mind. I expected Andy to start to cry once we got near the thing. After all, it is pretty loud. But Andy let me pass him over to his dad with no problem. In fact, the first thing he did was reach for the steering wheel. During the whole ride around the house he kept trying to drive, something neither of the other boys have ever done.

Go figure.